Britain's Royal Mail has issued a set of ten stamps honoring what it considers the great (British) clothes designs of our time. One of those is a nicely rendered image of Tommy Nutter's checked suit for Beatle Ringo Starr made fifty years ago.
Now I will not pretend to have done any formal research to confirm my suspicion but I believe that suit was the post-War highlight of Savile Row's search for relevance in a world taken with first French and later Italian tailoring. The Row has come a long way in the intervening years, but it is a search that continues today. James' Sherwood's call for tailors to begin publicizing the names of their clients in the current issue of The Rake and the British Fashion Council's announcement of a new London menswear show to take place immediately prior to Pitti Uomo are two more events from just this week. By contrast, the Italians seem relatively complacent.
There is inherent conflict between this fight for commercial success and traditional British reserve as evidenced by The Chap's recent organization of a protest against the presence of Abercrombie and Fitch on Savile Row. Like it or dislike it, A&F promotes itself brilliantly. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the Row can do the same but they do seem to be working at it.
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7 comments:
" ...Tommy Nutter's checked suit for Beatle Ringo Starr made fifty years ago. "
Will- Please don't make me feel any older than I am. (Every year counts!)
TN suit for RS, closer to 42 yrs. ago.
Good luck to The Chap's protest against the presence of Abercrombie and Fitch on Savile Row.
Brilliant marketing or not, A&F is fast food clothing, and that ain't good.
Hope there is a successful effort to keep all chain stores out of the area. Sick of seeing American brands contaminate the character of unique districts all over the globe.
As was once stated in an ad by, of all people, the NRA, "Ninety percent of life is marketing!" I might not want to, but I do believe it.
I agree completely with John. I feel that many small businesses will die before public sentiment shifts away from the corporate conglomerates that dominate the consumer's options in all areas of what we buy today, not just clothing. Hopefully Savile Row will weather these changes as it has done through the past centuries.
I agree completely with John.
I feel that many small businesses will die before public sentiment shifts away from the corporate conglomerates that dominate the consumer's options in all areas of what we buy today, not just clothing. Hopefully Savile Row will weather these changes as it has done through the past centuries.
It is not necessarily the the American brands that contaminate the character of unique districts. When it comes to luxury items, the Italians and the French are the worst offenders. Many of these brands are owned by huge European conglomerates, they trade on their past, their merchandise is expensive--much of it no longer good quality, and you have only to walk up and down Bond Street, of Fifth Avenue, or Rodeo Drive to see that they are EVERYWHERE.
It seems a bit of a sacrilege to have A&F on Savile Row, but at least they don't compete with the tailors for anything except rent. I would find it far more ominous to find Armani and Zegna boutiques crowding out Huntsman and Poole. If Savile Row dies, that will be the manner of its passing.
It's the business building tax rates that are the small tailors' biggest worry. Some, such as G&H and Poole don't have rent but the business tax rates are often as much as the rent on leased premises and that's down to Westminster City Council. This is why some firms already share premises and that leads to a weakening of branding and marketing punch.
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